Before and After
by jg325
Summary: She emerged from the shed, and looked into the sky. First fic ever, please review.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own portal, never have and never will, more the shame.

**A/N: Thanks to guest for the review, I don't know who you are, but you know who you are, anyways hopefully the changes I made to this and chapter 2 will clear up who is who a bit.**

I stepped out of the shed, into the blinding light, the sun. All around me were tall golden stalks, rustling in the breeze, I was free. The shed rumbled behind me, I turned to look wondering what horror was about to come after me. To my surprise the companion cube, scorched but still intact came flying out before the door shut tight, keeping me out. I looked around until my eye caught on something. "No no no no, not this please." I begged as I looked at the black hole in the sky.

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Then the world faded to black and I knew no more.

She slowly awoke, finding herself in a glass pod, just like the relaxation annex, and she instantly grew afraid, she could hear a voice from outside the pod, it sounded like, Cave Johnson?

"And that ladies and gentlemen, is the Aperture Science Virtual Reality System. Now my lovely assistant Caroline will answer all your questions while I go check on our demonstrator."

Caroline smiled at Mr. Johnson and walked to the podium, selecting the first of the many questions being directed at her. Mr. Johnson came over and looked at the monitors flashing ominously.

"Doc what is going on, why is everything flashing red."

"I don't know Cave, she is going haywire, her heart rate is through the roof, her adrenalin is spiking, her fear response is off the charts, we need to get her to the medical wing and get her sedated now!"

Cave signaled to Caroline and she quickly directed everybody out of the Demonstration room and too the conference room. The moment they were out of sight the Aperture staff went to work pulling Chell out of the pod, getting her onto a gurney, sedating her and rushing her down the hall.

Chell was flitting in and out of consciousness, confused at what little she could understand, it sounded like Cave Johnson was there, but that was impossible, he was dead. And there was the man standing, or running, she seemed to be moving, over her, giving instructions and checking on her. She must be out of it, because he sounded EXACTLY like Wheatley, and his eyes, one was deep blue, and ragged with a, crack down it, but Wheatley wasn't human, and he was in space.

She finally blacked out, not seeing the leviathan machine hanging from the ceiling, not seeing the yellow optic focus on her, and not hearing the machine say "Welcome back, Chell."

**A/N: **First fanfic, reviews would be appreciated, no beta so any mistakes are my own, please feel free to point out so I can fix them.


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own Portal or any part there-of, no matter how hard I wish.

Doug stood at the end of the bed, looking over the patient, he sighed, knowing that he was going to have to break the bad news, and they were going to kill him. He turned to look at his bosses, Cave and Caroline Johnson, his uncle and aunt, and shut one of his eyes as he spoke, the other, ragged and cracked from a piece of shrapnel, narrowed leaving a blue dot in the center.

"Something went wrong, and I have no clue why. Her brain is not accessing any memories from before two days ago, when she went into the machine. She probably has amnesia, and if the readings are anything to go by she has PTSD too. I'm sorry."

Caroline shut her eyes tightly and tried to hold back her tears, shaking her head trying not to believe him, Cave paced around the bed looking between the comatose girl and the doctor.

"Doug, tell me my little girl is going to be ok, I need to hear you say that right now."

Doug looked at Cave and nodded, "She is going to be ok, but she will need help, we don't know what memories she has, and what she doesn't."

Caroline finally spoke up, "What will you need to help her?" her eyes boring into Doug's mismatched pair.

He sighed and sat in a chair, looking ragged and worn out, it had only been 3 hours since she came out of the pod but it felt like 3 lifetimes. "I, don't know, I, I'm not trained for this. This is a serious neurological problem, I'm just a trauma surgeon, we will need to get a specialist in here. Give me a few hours, I'll come up with somebody, go rest, she will be fine for now." He started to trail off as he finished speaking, his eyes taking on the Johnson haze, making his deep thought.

After each kissing their daughter's head, both Cave and Caroline left, knowing there was nothing they could do. Moments after they left a large, unnatural white shape hanging from a ceiling mount came in, its yellow optic focusing on the comatose figure in the bed. GLaDOS synced with the med comp and looked over Chell's file, before turning to the doctor and waiting for him to notice her.

When the doctor finally looked up the construct spoke. "Perhaps she should be moved to her Extended Habitation Pod, she is under no medical duress, and the surroundings might help to keep her calm."

Doug looked up at her, "You mean her room? You are the only one who ever calls it that you know. And it sounds like a good idea, but keep an eye on her incase anything happens, and keep the knockout gas ready."

"I always keep the knockout gas ready Rat Boy, and I always keep an eye on her, it's bad to let a dangerous lunatic run around unwatched."

A/N: As always reviews are appreciated, still unbeta'ed.


	3. Chapter 3

I do not, and will never, own any part of Portal, it belongs to Valve.

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The bed felt soft and comfy, nice pillows, a soft blanket, she didn't want to wake up, afraid that she would find herself at the start of another course, another test for the AI to try and kill her. Chell finally opened her eyes and was confused, it looked like the Extended Relaxation Vault, but different. It looked, lived in, the TV was bigger, the walls were covered in floral print, the desk was covered in papers and a computer, and in front of the window was a dresser covered in doodads and baubles that seemed familiar.

She slowly got to her feet, unsteady like she hadn't stood up in days, and started walking around. A buzzer sounded and she heard a knock at the door, she froze before darting into the closet and closing it almost all the way. She noticed all the clothes that seemed to be her size, but was distracted by the voice, HER voice.

"Chell, are you awake? Please open the door; I would like to come in." Chell tried to hide farther back in the closet shaking in fear. The knocking continued for a minute then stopped, this only scared her more.

She screamed when the window went clear, and the AI could be seen, her optic focusing in on Chell. The screaming lasted for a few seconds before Chell passed out, collapsing on the floor, all the systems monitoring her sending out blazing warnings.

GLaDOS quickly paged the medical team and sent the pod to the dock, crying out, "Chell? Chell are you ok? Say something Chell please. Let me know you are ok please." But Chell did not respond.

As the pod docked Dr. Rattmann raced into the room and moved Chell onto the bed, quickly checking her vitals as the medical data scrolled on the TV screen. He glanced at the screen, Chell then GLaDOS, "GLaDOS, you are sending her fear response into overdrive, you have to stay away for now, please it is for her own good."

GLaDOS backed away, looking guilty, "I'm sorry, I wanted to make sure she was ok, I'm sorry…" lingered as the AI vanished onto the network of rails at the roof of the room.

Doug stayed with Chell until she woke up, thrashing madly and screaming, he just barely managed to calm her enough to speak. "It's ok you are ok nothing is going to hurt you I promise. She is not here now you are safe Chell."

She looked at him, her eyes wide with fear, "Wheatley?" she croaked, confusion clouding her eyes. "Who is Chell?"

Doug's jaw dropped, this was much worse than he had though. "You don't remember anything?" he whimpered out.

"Remember what?" Chell asked not understanding. "Cave is gonna kill me."

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A/N: Once again first fic, I suck at writing so any tips and all are appreciated, thanks for reading so far, and stay tuned.


	4. Chapter 4

I do not own any piece of portal, and I am making no money from it, but damn I wish I owned it.

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Warning, big wall of text incoming, lots of exposition, and is liable to be updated until I feel it sounds right.

He sat on the edge of the bed and looked Chell over; she eyed him warily, ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble. He sighed again and just started talking, not quite knowing where to start.

"Not sure where to start, there is a lot to tell you know. Or you don't know, actually, cause you don't remember. Which is what I am trying to fix, I hope. Well, you are Michelle Johnson, Chell for short, but you knew that part, cause everyone has been calling you that. Well not everyone cause you haven't been around everyone, but everyone who has been around you, cause they were around you, see."

Chell start scooting away, towards the door, he was sounding more and more like Wheatley. "I know my name is Chell, why don't you tell me how much of that, Thing, was real."

"Oh sorry yah I ramble on too much, happens when I'm nervous, like now, cause of, you know. Um right, the game, uh, some I guess? I mean Aperture is real, you are there now, kinda silly actually, not you, me. Cause you know it is real, cause you are in it." She gave him a glare that made him shake even worse, and he hurriedly continued. "I uh, GLaDOS! Yah GLaDOS is real, and she is here, in Aperture, but you know that. Uh, Cave is real, he owns the company, and started it, uh. CAROLINE, she is real too, and she is his secretary, and his wife, but that wasn't in the game. Does it matter, I don't know, moving on before you kill me. The long fall boots are real, well they exist, but we don't use them, they are not working you see. We can't use them cause they are your project you know, or you don't know, cause of the memory thing, but yah the boots exist. The portal gun doesn't, we are working on it, but so far we don't have anything working, so yah that is kinda real but kinda not, if that makes sense to you. But uh all the cores don't exist, that was just us doing voices, me and other employees, for the game, cause they are not real, the cores not the other employees they are real, nice guys too. Great to hang out with after work and all, we can go down to the pub and -" he trailed off as she glared at him again, "oh right rambling sorry."

"What about GLaDOS trying to kill everyone, and the testing, and why did you call it a game?" He looked back at her in surprise, "GLaDOS try to kill everyone? Never, she wouldn't hurt anybody, except me. But that's different I think, cause she doesn't like me, and I maybe deserve it. But no, she is like a mother, she wouldn't hurt people, except me, she even takes care of people, she takes care of you even, sometimes, when you need it. And she doesn't test, well except for ATLAS and P-Body, but they are different, and she doesn't kill them either, although she gets mad at them and threatens to kill them. But she won't, cause they are like her children, not that she would kill people who aren't her children, cause she wouldn't, she is not like that."

"Why did you call it a game?"

"Cause it was one, a game to test the Aperture Science Virtual Reality Immersion System, well more of a demo really, to show what it could do. But you know that part better than me, you designed it, or you don't know cause you forgot, cause of the memory thing, and I should stop talking about it. But yah it was a game, you designed it to show off the system, and you based it here, on Aperture, where we are now, and you used stuff from here in the game, like Aperture, and Cave, and Caroline, and stuff."

She looked at him, and that look, without the glare or anything, scared him worse than ever before. "How do I know you are not lying, that this isn't all just a test by her, or a plan to kill me? Maybe you are a just an android she is using to trick me, maybe I should kill you so she can't use you to trick me." She slowly got up, her voice getting louder, more hysterical with each moment, she started towards him as she finished, and poor Doug, poor defenseless, paranoid Doug, decided now was a good time to be somewhere, anywhere, else.

Like he was on repulsion gel, Doug took off, screaming bloody murder and begging not to be killed, totally lost. Cave sighed and slumped in his office chair, turning off the video feed and moving Chell's pod away from the dock. "Well, there goes 2 years of therapy, get ready to tranc him and up his meds, before he starts making Rat Dens again."

GLaDOS nodded and moved off, already connecting to the security system and sweeping for him. Caroline just sighed, "That could have gone better Cave." "I tried everything I could, maybe Doug is right, maybe we will have to bring in a specialist."

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A/N: If anybody thinks they can help make Doug sound more like Wheatley, please PM me, I was trying to go for that effect. Also please review if you think of ways for me to make this better.


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you to guest for the review, and for inspiring me to keep going, not gonna lie, been having some family problems, making it hard to write, but not like my writing can get worse.**

**Oh and I don't own portal or any associated assets, if I did by now portal 2 would have episodes 1-3, and probably portal 3 and 4 by now. I do not own Half-Life or any characters there in, cause if I did, I would probably own valve, and we would have episode 3 out, and half-life 3 out as well by now. STOP LEAVING US HANGING GABE. Anyways on to the story.**

"Doug, are you ok now? Nobody is going to hurt you, I promise."

Doug looked wildly up at his aunt, his cracked eye twitching every which way, the other one petrified in fear. "Her eyes, HER EYES, she is coming to kill me, TO KILL ME!" he gasped out trying to jump up, only to be restrained by the hands of 2 robots, one tall and orange, the other small and blue.

Caroline sighed in defeat and pressed the button to inject him with more meds before she turned to the intercom and pressed the talk button. "Cave, it's hopeless, she scared him so bad it will be days before he is calm enough to think." "That's the Johnson family stare; gets em every time, poor sucker never knew what hit him." "Yes," she replied frostily, her voice carrying extreme anger just barely kept in check, "thanks to the 'Johnson family stare' we have no idea who can help our daughter. If I were you, I would stop bragging before you make things worse." "Yes dear."

Chell threw herself on the bed in frustration, she had tried to open the door for the past half hour, since the room had stopped moving, but it would not budge. THWING THWING, she jumped up eyes locking onto the white turret shaped pod on the desk that just rang, THWING THWING, she walked over to it and pressed the red button, the only button on the pod. It opened up to reveal a screen and a keypad, as a voice started coming from it.

"Hey Chell, its Gina, just wondering how the demo went. We hadn't heard from you and were starting to get worried."

Chell stared at the phone. "Who are you?"

"Not funny Chell, it was one video game, your brain did not turn to mush."

"I don't know who you are, how do you know my name?"

"You are being serious aren't you? What do you remember?"

"I don't know anything I guess, they told me it was all just a game, but it felt so real."

"Get dressed, we will be at Aperture in 10 minutes, if you can't find the entrance we will find you. It is going to be ok Chell; we are here for you now."

The call ended and Chell stared at the phone dumbly, she didn't know why, but she felt compelled to trust the voice, like she knew the speaker, even though she had no memory of a Gina.

She went to the closet and picked out a simple white T and a pair of jeans, changing into them as she felt the room moving back towards the dock. When it arrived she grabbed her phone and snuck out, trying to make sure nobody saw her.

GLaDOS watched Chell move through the facility, leaving subtle hints of how to get to the entrance until Chell arrived at the front door. GLaDOS brought up the files on Gina Cross, Colette Green, and Judith Mossman, humming as she skimmed over the files. "Yes, perhaps her friends can help…"

**A/N: and that is the end of the chapter, hope it is good, remember reviews are appreciated, and if anyone has questions feel free to pm me and I will do my best to answer. **

**So Stay Tuned for the next exciting Chapter of, oh sorry wrong audience, until next time.**

**Why yes, Chell's ringtone is the Metal Gear Codec Call Sound, indulge me I just got off a 3 day Peace Walker binge.**


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